Are you ready for the battle of the Boerewors?

The 21st Championship Boerewors competition is here!

It’s that time of year again...time to dust off that secret recipe, to get out your shiny mincer, to start blending together the perfect balance of herbs and spices, and definitely the right time to train yourself for the battle that will see South African boerewors experts sweating it out next to braaifires across the country!

Yes, it’s time to get ready for the 2013 Shoprite Checkers Championship Boerewors Competition! This year we celebrate the Championship Boerewors Competition’s coming of age – it is 21 years since the first competition was held.

Adding to the fireworks of this already sizzling event, is the return of the well-known boerewors baldies - entertainer and food connoisseur, Nataniël, and kwaito artist and musician of note, Mandoza. To all the so-called boerewors experts they say: “Game on! We challenge all the would-be champs to really bring it this year. You can’t win a brand new TOYOTA Hilux 2.7 Double Cab Raised Body Raider for just stuffing mince and coriander into a casing. Only the tastiest, best quality traditional boerewors will do.”

To stand a chance of walking away with this grand first prize and the sought-after Boerewors Crown, boerewors experts must enter their recipes before the closing date of 14 June 2013. Entry forms are available at any Shoprite, Checkers or Checkers Hyper Meat Market or they can enter online at www.championshipboerewors.co.za.

Anyone with an exceptional traditional boerewors recipe, and the skills to make their boerewors from scratch, can enter. Make sure, though, that your recipe isn’t just any beef sausage – it has to be a unique traditional boerewors. The South African Chefs Association (SACA), a recognized authority on food in South Africa, will take charge of the judging processes, and they will be making sure that all entries adhere to strict guidelines for making the real thing.

To be traditional, boerewors must contain at least 90 percent meat - always containing beef, as well as lamb or pork or a mixture of lamb and pork and the fat content of the meat mixture may not exceed 30 percent. Furthermore, the distinctive combinations of spices like coriander, cloves, nutmeg and black pepper as well as fluids like vinegar, water and Worcestershire sauce are what differentiates boerewors from other variants. So, if you want to qualify for Shoprite and Checkers’ competition, please ensure that your recipe is valid and unique.

Participants have a long road ahead of them to get to the 2013 Championship Boerewors Grand Finalé. First participants will face-off in regional rounds that take place countrywide on Saturdays 10, 17 and 24 August, and only those who stand victorious after these hard-hitting clashes will go on to compete against their provincial counterparts on Saturday, 14 September.

From the provincial rounds, ten boerewors-warriors will emerge triumphant, only to then face their toughest adversaries yet in the final battle for title of 2013 Boerewors Champion at the Grand Finalé at Sun City on 5 October.

Shoprite and Checkers are proud of South Africa’s boerewors tradition and celebrate it every year by sponsoring the Championship Boerewors Competition. The supermarket chain’s butcheries are trusted for the superior quality and variety of their meat products and the quality of the Championship Boerewors that is aspired to each year, is testimony to the high standards in meat that Shoprite and Checkers offer their customers. Therefore the supermarket group searches for a new Championship Boerewors recipe each year to ensure that it can offer its customers the best that can be found.